10.14.2009

At the same time President Obama is being honored after winning the Nobel Peace Prize, he is dealing with an inherited military conflict in Afghanistan which appears to be dragging his administration further into an increasingly expensive foreign war at a time when the domestic economy is in a disastrous free fall.

Ironically, continued conflict in Afghanistan threatens to further inflame world opinion perhaps squandering much of the good will generated after Obama's election, which resulted in him winning the prestigious award in the first place.

On the foreign policy front, drug lords, warlords, death and corruption are still the order of the day in Afghanistan and the presidential election results are still unknown. There are still deadly bombings occurring daily in parts of Iraq and he has failed to persuade America's "sacrosanct" partner Israel to stop creating barriers to peace and to put down their bloody and paralyzing weapons.

On the domestic front, in the midst of partisan rancor and despite the photo op involving doctors on the White House lawn last week, Obama's fight for health care reform is far from over.

And did I mention his promised closure of Guantanamo Bay? Despite Obama saying it would be closed by the end of January 2010, Army Brigadier General Timothy Lake was just named the new deputy commander of the U.S. joint military force that runs the prison which holds over 220 suspected terrorists. He was given a one-year term. You do the math.

About Ashahed M. MuhammadAs a journalist, author and veteran organizer, Ashahed is one of the most influential ideologues and strategists within today’s contemporary and progressive activist scene. He is the Executive Director of the Truth Establishment Institute and Assistant Editor of The Final Call the most widely circulated independent Black weekly in the United States.